Katherine D. Jones, the fourth of seven children, was born in Berlin Wisconsin in 1860. Her father became a Congregationalist
minister following his arrival in the U.S. from Wales. Between 1876 and 1880 while living in Nebraska, Jones taught during
the summers and attended school in the winters. She moved to Calaveras County (California) in 1880, where she taught in public
schools and saved her money to attend the University of Nebraska. Unfortunately her mother took ill and she returned to
California moving with her family to Vallejo. She conducted a school of her own, then taught in public schools for six years.

Jones assisted her younger brother Guernsey with his tuition at the University of California, Berkeley, occasionally visiting
him and attending Joseph LeConte's lectures on zoology. This renewed her desire to return to college and she entered UC Berkeley
to study biology and botany graduating in 1896. After graduating, she taught biology and music in Hayward but illness caused
her to give up her position. She returned to UC Berkeley, assisting in botany and zoology classes, becoming an administrative
aid, and keeping records for the Botany Department. This work under J. Burtt Davy and H.M. Hall influenced her career and
aroused her interest in exotic plants.

Mr. A.V. Stubenrauch, who managed seven experimental Stations of the Bureau of Plant Industry for the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
enlisted her aid in his work on Acacias leading to her to develop an expertise in this area. In 1910 Professor E.B. Babcock
called upon Jones as the best qualified person to assist with gathering seeds for distribution to schools under the Agricultural
Education program, which led an academic appointment in this program. When John Gregg arrived in Berkeley to establish the
Department of Landscape Gardening in 1913, he found Jones' wide knowledge of exotic flora of great value. She taught a course
on plant materials with Mr. R.T. Stevens until his departure in 1917, and continued to teach the classes herself. She taught
field work and took students outdoors to learn the names of trees and shrubs. At Harvard, students were told that if they
had passed her work satisfactorily, no further examination would be required for entrance to the Plant Material classes there.

Jones became an authority on Acacias, and wrote the entry in Baily's Encyclopedia in 1914. She continued her writing into
the 1930s with contributions to National Horticultural Magazine. The California Horticultural Society and California Garden
Clubs honored her and she is considered one of the notable women of California for her advancement of the botanical and landscape
side of horticulture.

The Katherine D. Jones collection consists of primarily of materials Jones used for her teaching and research. It includes
correspondence, field notes, course materials, lists of plants, papers on botanical subjects by Jones and others (including
Harry Shepherd), pamphlets on flowers and vines, and articles on plant ecology. The bulk of the collection consists of notebooks
centered on garden subjects, field trips, site visits, and plant research. It is difficult to distinguish her teaching notes
from her research notes as it appears that in many cases they were thoroughly integrated. The integrity of the notebooks
was maintained during refoldering and the the folder titles were taken from the notebooks. The distinction between trips
and visits was hers. It may be that trips were taken with students and visits to locations throughout California were taken
for her research. Arranged by subject and location, they contain detailed notes on the horticulture of particular sites, sometimes
including course material, clippings, plant lists, interviews, and photographs.

Her notes for visits to Santa Barbara include discussions she had with Lockwood de Forest. Subjects include files on English
gardens and U.S. colonial gardens, Golden Gate Park, the Panama Pacific International Exposition (1915), the Golden Gate International
Exposition (1939), and the Blake/Symmes Garden in Kensington CA. The collection also includes photographs, plant cards, and
extensive research files on vines.